John Stolarski’s Old Newspaper Clippings

With the exception of his first two years in the Force, John Stolarski spent his entire career as a Police Dog Services handler.

Throughout this career, John clipped newspaper articles about members who he had worked with.

Despite the fact that John has passed away, his family has agreed for us to re-post these articles for the interest of RCMP Veterans and current members of the Force.

Photograph of S/Sgt. Alfred L. Beach (Reg.#17200) – taking over duties at the Haney RCMP Detachment June 24. (Source of photo – Mildred Stolarski)

NOTE: Alfred retired from the Force on June 14, 1979.  On April 3, 1956, he and Constable Bud Johnstone responded to a bank alarm in Coquitlam, BC.  Johnstone exited the police car and walked into the front door of the bank.  He was confronted with a robbery in progress and Johnstone was shot several times. With the suggestion that Johnstone would die of his wounds, the Commissioner promoted him to rank corporal the day after the robbery.

Based on his actions confronting these robbery suspects, Alfred Beach received a commendation.

NEW HEAD NAMED FOR SURREY RCMP

Photograph of RCMP Superintendent George Strathdee (Reg.#17074 – O.862)

Coping with dwindling manpower and keeping the peace within Canada’s biggest RCMP patrol district are challenges faced by Surrey’s new top policeman, Supt. George Strathdee.

Strathdee, 52, a San Francisco native and career RCMP man with 32 years of service, replaced Supt. A.C. Wilson who is retiring after 35 years on the force.

Strathdee’s appointment was effective at the beginning of the month. He previously headed the force’s Nanaimo detachment.

“Surrey’s kind of a unique area to police,” the lean, sandy-haired administrator said in his Cloverdale office. The municipality has the second biggest population in BC., next to Vancouver, and the second largest geographical area in the country, next to Timmins, Ont., making it a tough place to police.

“When you combine those two figures, it creates a problem,” Strathdee says.

For example, heavily-populated Whalley is a 20-minute drive from Cloverdale headquarters.

Maintaining an adequate staffing leve is a chronic problem.

The detachment’s manpower has dropped steadily since 1980.

The 224 officers are stretched too thinly against the standard measuring criterion of number of occurrences and number of officers per thousand population.

“With tight money and restraint we can’t keep up with the population,” Strathdee said. “The options are to reduce the standard of policing or cut out some of the services we provide.”

To meet the demands, some routine police services have been affixed with cut-off points, where it’s uneconomical to provide them.

“But I’d rather not say what they are,” Strathdee says, because it could give criminals an edge.

“Manpower is not the end-all, even if we could afford it. Taxpayers wouldn’t want to pay for it. That’s certainly not the answer in the long haul.”

But Strathdee admits he doesn’t have the final answer to the crime problem.

“There has to be an attitudinal change of society’s perceptions, and if I had that answer, I wouldn’t be in the police business. I’d be making big bucks as a consultant.”

The nature of policing has changed substantially during his 32 years of the force, Strathdee says.

“We’re far more effective than we ever were before. Men are better educated and trained, and today there’s computers, mechanical aids, and better equipment.”

But the same progression has taken part on the flip side too.

“The attitude of criminals has deteriorated. They’re becoming more sophisticated.“

Other things have changes as well.

“The justice system used to be much surer and much swifter.”
NOTE: George retired from the Force on April 3, 1989.

WOOD TICK BITE FATAL TO MOUNTIE

Photograph of RCMP Corporal George Hawkins (Reb.#19758) (Source of photo – Mildred Stolarski)

June 6, 1968 – RCMP Cpl. George Hawkins, who became one of B.C.’s outstanding policemen and dog-handlers when stationed at Cloverdale, has died in Brandon, Man.

He was bitten by a wood tick, which caused inflammation of the brain and pneumonia.

Cpl. Hakins, who played a key role in three of B.C.’s worst slides and one of its biggest manhunts, was described by Sub-Inspector Wilfred Morrison of Cloverdale as “one of our very best.”

Photograph of Corporal George Hawkins (Reg.#19758)

Inspector Morrison said Hawkins worked so hard in the first four months of 1965 that his health broke down.

The first of three big slides rumbled down on the Hope-Princeton Highway on Jan. 10, 1965, and killed four persons. Hawkins and his dog, Prince, were sent in to look over the bodies and recovered two.

Five days later, he was on his way to Ocean Falls where the side of a mountain slide down on the paper-making town and killed seven persons. Hawkins and the dog recovered all the buried bodies.

On Feb. 18, he was sent to the northern coastal town of Stewart and on to the Granduc mine where 26 men were killed in an avalanche. All the bodies were recovered.

Hawkins and the dog were at the head of a 10-day man-hunt when police killer Russell Spears was flushed out of a small clearing near Westbank on the shore of Lake Okanagan April 20.

Photograph of RCMP Dog Services handler – Constable George Hawkins from Cloverdale Detachment (Source of photo – Vancouver Sun Newspaper).

Spears shot himself between the eyes as Hawkins ran up to disarm him.

Spears, a former mental patient, shot RCMP Const. Neil Bruce who was investigating a complaint that Spears was holding a girl in his cabin. Spears also wounded the girl, Beverley Charest, 17.

Cpl. Hawkins was transferred to Brandon about a year ago. He is survived by his wife and one child.

FOUR-FOOTED SLEUTH HERE

Photograph of Constable John Stolarski with his police service dog Caesar (Source of photo – Mildred Stolarski).

Moose Jaw now has a four-footed sleuth nosing around the area.

He’s suspicious of everyone and everything he encounters, and, if his suspicions are aroused, he can become a hard customer.

His name is Caesar, an 8.5 year old albino German Shepherd in work since the age of one.

He is the first police dog ever to be attached to the Moose Jaw RCMP detachment. His duties here will be to track criminals, search for lost persons for articles and track down illicit liquor.

Caesar is handled by his trainer and master Const. John Stolarski, a native of Melville. The dog’s home will be kennels located behind Const. Stolarski’s home.

READILY AVAILABLE

This means the god will be readily available should the constable receive a call which would require the dog’s services in the middle of the night. Caesar is taken around in a station wagon.

Caesar has received extensive training in tracking and other phases of police work. He received complete training in a one-year course and takes a two-week refresher course every year.

Caesar had been stationed with the constable at Dauphin, Man. For half a year and at Saskatoon for four years, before they came to Moose Jaw from Saskatoon.

Const. Stolarski said Moose Jaw is centrally located and is a spot that could ue the services of a police dog.